MCG/Docklands stadia deals [merged]

[one-eyed]

There's an article in the Herald-Sun today showing the difference in Stadia deals between clubs.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23514557-19742,00.html

The hardcopy paper has a chart and Richmond is 13th.

West Coast - over $14 m
Fremantle  -  over $12 m
Sydney      -         $12 m
Collingwood -       $11.5 m
Brisbane     - over $ 9 m
Essendon    -        $ 8.5 m
Adelaide     -        $ 8.25 m  (league average)
Geelong      -    ~  $ 8 m
St Kilda      - over $ 7 m
Hawthorn   - over $ 7 m
Bulldogs    -  over $ 6 m
Carlton      -        $ 6 m
Richmond  -        $ 6 m
Melbourne  -        $ 5.5 m
Port Adel.  -         $ 5.4 m
North Melb. - over $ 5 m   

[mightytiges]

The MCC taking us for granted once again  . We have had the two biggest crowds for the year so far and more people have seen us in the first 3 weeks than anyone else yet we get stuff all back in return for it compared to clubs that get half the attendances.


http://stats.rleague.com/afl/crowds/2008.html

[tigersalive]

The MCC taking us for granted once again  . We have had the two biggest crowds for the year so far and more people have seen us in the first 3 weeks than anyone else yet we get stuff all back in return for it compared to clubs that get half the attendances.


http://stats.rleague.com/afl/crowds/2008.html

Bit off topic but it's much like the football team.  And yet I'll be back watching TV on Sunday for another dose punishment, 75% chance.

[one-eyed]

Fresh doubt on Gold Coast deal
Michael Gleeson | July 15, 2008

THE AFL's push into the Gold Coast could still hit a stumbling block if it fails to change the stadium deals crippling Victorian clubs, according to Richmond president, Gary March.

While the plans for the Gold Coast team gather momentum, March said the broad club approval needed should not be assumed unless the AFL deals with the stadium issue.

March's comments came after Collingwood president Eddie McGuire warned that the change in economic conditions since the presidents last met with the AFL and gave in-principle agreement to press ahead with expansion plans, meant that caution should now be exercised.

McGuire said the economic downturn was such that while the Gold Coast should still be on the agenda, a new team in Western Sydney should not.

"I certainly agree with Eddie on putting the 18th team on ice, but I think there is a fair bit of work to do before they convince us on the 17th team as well," March said.

"They are still to address the issues we asked of them at the last meeting and that was to sort out the stadia deals for the clubs and make sure we are all on a level playing field, and where deals cannot be altered, establish a mechanism that better recognises those inequities and deals with them.

"I don't think the Gold Coast is a fait accompli until they fix the inequalities in the stadia deals and they show us all the details on the concessions they will offer to the new club, which could cripple any side that happens to be down the bottom."

While Collingwood and Richmond are sceptical of the haste for expansion, other clubs believed there was no "right time" and that failing to act would be a bigger mistake.

The AFL has about $100 million available to it in a future fund which it believes would be wiser to use now to expand into important new markets.

St Kilda chief executive Archie Fraser said that everyone accepted that Sydney would be "a harder market to break into".

"But I believe we have to be there in terms of the population growth and there is never a good time to do it," he said.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/fresh-doubt-on-gold-coast-deal/2008/07/14/1215887542175.html

[one-eyed]

AFL to get tough with MCG, Telstra Dome
Caroline Wilson | September 24, 2008

THE AFL and its two Melbourne stadiums are headed for a showdown, with the league not ruling out relocating more home-and-away games in Sydney and Canberra should the MCG and Telstra Dome refuse to improve their financial deals with Victorian clubs.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and his team told the club presidents two days ago that Victorian teams were indirectly subsidising their rugby and soccer rivals, with clubs such as the Melbourne Victory receiving significantly better deals from the Docklands stadium than home teams such as cash-strapped Western Bulldogs or North Melbourne.

Demetriou and his team at Monday's pre-Brownlow presidents' meeting vowed to negotiate new agreements with both stadiums and indicated that the competition would use big-drawing AFL games as leverage.

While the AFL has already threatened to build a third stadium in Melbourne, it has also not ruled out removing fixtures involving tenant clubs such as Richmond and Hawthorn from the MCG. Telstra Dome, whose deal with the AFL reverts to a minimum 30 games a season in coming years, will also be placed under pressure to reward big crowds for home AFL clubs.

The meeting two days ago left the 16 club presidents determined to band together for the sake of the competition, with favoured MCG and Telstra Dome tenants Collingwood and Essendon respectively willing to join forces with clubs such as Richmond, Melbourne, St Kilda and Carlton in a bid to improve the ground agreements, which are crippling poorer Victorian teams.

Not only does the Melbourne Victory have a favourable Telstra Dome deal but international soccer and Bledisloe Cup fixtures at both stadiums have reaped significantly greater returns for those clubs and codes than the regular AFL games that the stadiums could not survive without.

Fuelling the AFL's frustration is the fact that the soon-to-be-built rectangular stadium in the Olympic Park precinct is expected to be commercially "clean", allowing tenant clubs at that ground full access to profitable signage and pourage agreements.

Demetriou indicated to the clubs that the AFL's campaign to improve the stadium deals was placed as a top priority, along with the Gold Coast and West Sydney push, and that the league hoped to lower and even eventually remove special assistance to clubs as a result of its negotiations with the stadiums.

A surprising revelation from the AFL's investigation into the MCG and Telstra Dome was that the MCG — currently servicing some $350 million worth of debt — paid even worse profits to clubs than Telstra Dome.

The 2009 fixture is not expected to be affected by the AFL's push, although some clubs left Monday's talks believing more games could be scheduled at the ACT's Manuka Oval and Sydney's ANZ Stadium next year as part of bargaining.

The MCG deal with the AFL was renegotiated with the rebuilding of the northern stand and runs until 2032, guaranteeing the stadium 45 home-and-away fixtures, including 10 of the best 12 in a season, along with the grand final and an average of one final a week over each finals series, fixtures that can be banked over the first two weeks of the finals.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/afl-gets-tough-with-mcg-dome/2008/09/23/1221935640755.html

[tigersalive]

I have read that three times and it doesnt get any better or much clearer. 

Bottom line, we shouldnt have to put up with any more games away from the MCG.

[mightytiges]

I don't think there's anything there we didn't already know but once again no real solution offered.

Unless you're Collingwood at the 'G, Essendon at the Dome or Geelong at Kardinia Park, you get pathetic returns from the stadia management. For a club like Richmond that consistently attracts top 4 crowds we get taken for granted by the MCC. They must make a killing out of us yet we don't see our fair share of $$$ from it.

So brainiac Demetriou if both the 'G and Dome offer poor stadia deals and you want to move us away from the 'G where are meant to play? Honolulu?!  Sounds like an excuse to just make us play Hawthorn down in Tassie and more home games at the Dome in 2009 which is what Demetriou wanted us to do this year  .

Rather than use the RFC as some guinea pig bargaining chip  , wouldn't the simplest solution, which actually would benefit Richmond and give it some leverage in discussions with the MCC, be to give us all 11 home games at the MCG plus 2 games each and every year against the other top 4 attendance clubs. Give us some fixture certainty to offer to the MCC. 

[one-eyed]

10 Victorian clubs here to stay: AFL
Caroline Wilson | September 26, 2008

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has declared his support for 10 clubs in Victoria and reminded all 16 clubs that the Victorian teams have been subsidising the competition for years.

On the eve of the first all-Victorian grand final since 2000, Demetriou has pointed out that the most recent $750 million broadcast rights deal was underpinned by the massive interest in the game generated from Victoria.

Demetriou, who has pledged to attract a fairer deal for all the MCG and Telstra Dome home teams, also reminded the wealthier and non-Victorian clubs that the annual AFL special assistance fund of $6 million ploughed into poorer Melbourne teams was a small price to pay.

Demetriou's stand took place at Monday's meeting of the 16 club presidents, at which the AFL revealed its strategy to remove the additional special distribution (ASD) to poorer clubs such as Melbourne, North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs and replace it with fairer stadium deals.

But the AFL chief executive and his commission moved to quash any disquiet about clubs surviving on welfare by pointing out that the traditional AFL states Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia provided the interest that generated the richest broadcast deal in Australian sport.

While the next commission meeting, scheduled for next month, was initially expected to reach a decision on ASD funding beyond 2009, the AFL now plans to push the MCG and Telstra Dome to lower the costs of their prohibitive ground agreements with a view to allowing the clubs to survive independently.

"It was terrific news for the clubs, I must say," Geelong president stuff Costa said last night. "We were all very encouraged by the AFL's viewpoint.

"I know how hard clubs like the Western Bulldogs work and how innovative some of their ideas are but when they can't make money out of a 30,000 crowd at Telstra Dome and we can make good money out of a 24,000 crowd at the ground we are lucky enough to own, then the equalisation policy needs to be improved."

Telstra Dome's deal with the AFL reverts to a 30-game minimum in 2014, with the stadium this year hosting 46 home-and-away fixtures, while charging Melbourne Victory significantly less than most AFL tenant clubs upon which it relies for revenue.

The MCG, which hosted its agreed minimum 45 games in 2008, will finish the season with total attendances of some 2.85 million but has a contractual minimum attendance agreement of 1.7 million. The MCG has managed to significantly reduce its debt on the back of its big AFL attendances.

The AFL has continued to float the possibility of building another stadium to add weaponry to its bargaining position but in the first instance will also point out to both Melbourne stadium bosses, Stephen Gough and Ian Collins, that the extra games emanating from a nine-team competition will not be played at grounds that charge AFL clubs more than any other football code in the country.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/victorian-clubs-to-stay-afl/2008/09/25/1222217431839.html

[one-eyed]

Call for state help on venue deals
Michael Gleeson | November 27, 2008

ANGRY Victorian AFL club presidents have sought an urgent meeting with the State Government to intervene on their behalf to improve their deals with Melbourne stadiums.

Alarmed that the continued poor stadium arrangements, combined with the economic crisis, could lead to the death of at least one local club, the 10 clubs yesterday were unanimous in pushing the need for revision of the arrangements with the MCG and Telstra Dome.

The Victorian clubs have long believed they were being poorly treated by the stadiums at which they played, and yesterday, at a meeting with AFL commission chairman Mike stuff and chief executive Andrew Demetriou, they discovered how badly.

The clubs were as one in their outrage at the figures that showed the Melbourne stadiums retained about 70 per cent of revenue from a match and returned 30 per cent to clubs.

In all other stadia around the country, the balance was almost the opposite.

Those figures are exemplified by the fact that West Coast averages $34 a head from its games, while Carlton returns about $13 a head.

Geelong is by far the best-placed Victorian club due to its arrangements at Kardinia Park.

With about 30,000 members and an average home attendance at the ground of 24,000, the Cats could gross about $650,000 a match.

The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have had superior membership and average attendances than the Cats in 2008, yet they are $5 million a year worse off than Geelong.

The key difference is the stadium deals.

A delegation from the 10 Victorian clubs — Bulldogs president David Smorgon, Geelong's stuff Costa, Collingwood's Eddie McGuire, Carlton chief executive Greg Swann and Richmond chief executive Steven Wright — will now seek a meeting with Victorian Sports Minister James Merlino as soon as possible to lobby the Government to intercede on their behalf.

The MCG trust is the Victorian Government-appointed body that works with the MCC to run the MCG, and the Government, theoretically, would have the best chance to influence arrangements at that ground.

"We have 353,000 members of clubs in Melbourne, we contribute significantly to Victoria socially and the Victorian economy, so we think this is an important issue for the State Government," Smorgon said yesterday.

"I don't believe it is alarmist to say that these stadium deals have the capacity to see the death of clubs in Victoria.

"These deals are the single most important factor hurting the clubs.

"Last year, 2.7 million people went to the MCG, and less than 700,000 went there for all other events. Football is not recognised appropriately by the venue.

"This is not just an issue of the poor clubs pleading poor and whingeing, this is an unanimous position of the 10 Victorian clubs."

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/call-for-state-help-on-venue-deals/2008/11/26/1227491635495.html

[one-eyed]

AFL goes to war with government over stadium deals
Damian Barrett | November 26, 2008

VICTORIA'S 10 AFL clubs are set for a showdown with the State Government after tiring of unjust financial returns on the millions of dollars they generate for the state.

After a tense and revealing meeting at the AFL's Docklands headquarters yesterday, the clubs agreed to unite on the topic and have demanded a meeting with Sports Minister James Merlino.

One club official said last night "we've had enough" of watching the Government provide resources and money for rival codes and their clubs that show huge discrepancies when compared with AFL clubs' deals.

The clubs' anger is fuelled in part by the State Government-backed construction of a rectangular stadium for soccer's Melbourne Victory and rugby league's Melbourne Storm, as well as Cricket Australia's lucrative deal with the MCG.

Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon will head a delegation that will represent the clubs in the meeting with Merlino. He will be accompanied by his counterparts at Collingwood (Eddie McGuire) and Geelong (stuff Costa), along with Greg Swann (Carlton CEO) and Steven Wright (Richmond CEO).

When contacted by the Herald Sun last night, Smorgon confirmed a meeting with the State Government had been requested by the clubs "as a matter of urgency".

"We were very concerned to see where the money goes," Smorgon said.

Weaker clubs, including the Dogs and North Melbourne, that suffer most from the stadium deals, have the support of the more powerful ones.

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett strongly expressed that view at yesterday's meeting, chaired by the AFL's Mike stuff and Andrew Demetriou. The AFL presented figures that infuriated the clubs at the meeting, to which each club's president and chief executive were invited.

The figures revealed financial returns of all sports at Melbourne's two main sports stadiums, the MCG and Telstra Dome. One example was a 15,000 "break-even" difference in crowds between NRL and North Melbourne matches at Telstra Dome.

The discussions with the Government will likely have to centre on the MCG, as it is controlled by the Government-involved MCG Trust. Telstra Dome is privately run.

"Our main focus is to explain the overall situation to Government, as football is big business to Victoria. It generates a lot of income, a lot of fans," Smorgon said.

"We need to talk to them so they are fully briefed and then we can work out an action plan of where we go from there.

"We need to talk to the Government about the MCG, and what AFL football does for the state, and effectively see where the money goes to. Football has done great things for the MCG and we want to ensure we are getting a fair return on behalf of our grounds."

Smorgon would not reveal the discrepancy between returns for AFL clubs and other sports.

"We got a run-through of the AFL's analytical work and, to a club, everyone was really concerned and alarmed at the variances in a number of the deals," he said.

"There was some concern and alarm, almost an admission of, `Hang on, we never understood this before', but the facts have come to light. "

Smorgon said the clubs, in conjunction with the league, had formed a group to represent the Melbourne AFL clubs.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24713778-19742,00.html

[mightytiges]

The clubs were as one in their outrage at the figures that showed the Melbourne stadiums retained about 70 per cent of revenue from a match and returned 30 per cent to clubs.

In all other stadia around the country, the balance was almost the opposite.

So basically we get a 70k crowd against Carlton yet it's only like 21k turn up in terms of revenue. Talk about daylight robbery  .

[one-eyed]

Clubs sweat on stadium decision
Glenn McFarlane | Sunday Herald-Sun | 07 Dec 2008, Page S03

THE 10 Victorian AFL clubs expect an answer this week from Sports Minister James Merlino on whether the State Government will assist their push for fairer stadium rights deals.

Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon said the clubs were united in wanting to fight for what they say is fair recompense for the millions they help generate for the state.

Smorgon, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, Geelong president stuff Costa, Carlton CEO Greg Swann and Richmond CEO Steven Wright met Merlino last week.

"We made it clear that we totally respect and appreciate the Government's support of all Victorian AFL clubs over the past few years,'' Smorgon said.

"However . . . the AFL has presented figures to us that highlighted the windfall profits made by the cricket club (the MCC) and Telstra Dome.

"AFL football and therefore the clubs and the fans are not getting a fair go.

"From what we understand, there has been no argument from those organisations on the numbers. What is in dispute is where those dollars end up.''

Smorgon said it was in the long-term interest of the game that the clubs were the leading beneficiaries.

"We need the MCC and Telstra Dome, but they also need us because we are the biggest drawing sport to both those grounds,'' he said.

Smorgon said there was a "misunderstanding'' that the push came from the less affluent clubs.

"We are all equal in this because we are all concerned about it,'' he said.

[one-eyed]

Ground deal dispute causes club ructions
Caroline Wilson | February 18, 2009

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou and Telstra Dome chief Ian Collins unofficially shook hands before Christmas last year on a deal that would have resulted in $6 million a season being distributed to the Victorian clubs that played at the Docklands ground.

Demetriou was so confident that he had secured an improved stadium agreement for the struggling clubs that he mentioned it at a meeting of club chiefs soon after.

At least one club — North Melbourne — was so confident of the improved new deal that it included an extra $750,000 in its initial financial estimates for 2009. The multimillion-dollar cash injection would have involved a massive re-writing of the special assistance fund, an annual $3.1 million of which is shared by the Kangaroos and the Western Bulldogs.

However, Collins later told Demetriou that the deal was off after the Telstra Dome chief executive took it to his board and its representatives — which included superannuation funds that, in turn, knocked back the agreement that could have secured the medium-term future of several Victorian clubs.

It was after the deal fell apart that the AFL launched legal action against the board of directors of the stadium it will one day own, claiming Football Federation Australia had been handed a more generous ground agreement than several of the AFL clubs that created Telstra Dome.

Among the AFL's legal grievances was its claim that the new naming-rights sponsor of the stadium, Etihad, contravened the league's deal with its official airline, Qantas.

"We were told by Andrew that he had made a deal with 'Collo'," Bulldogs chairman David Smorgon confirmed to The Age. "However, Collo came back and said that after consulting with others — I can only assume he meant his board — that the deal was off."

The Kangaroos now face a budget shortfall of $750,000 for 2009 — exactly the amount it had hoped to reap from the new Telstra Dome deal. Of the five home clubs, the Bulldogs fare the worst out of their ground agreement, followed by North, St Kilda, Carlton and anchor tenant Essendon.

Those five clubs would have secured the lion's share of the $6 million, a portion of which would have been handed to all the Victorian clubs that play home games at Telstra Dome, which will have its name changed next month.

While Demetriou and Collins — the latter was Demetriou's immediate predecessor as the AFL's football operations manager — have continued to meet and attempted to negotiate, the relationship between the Docklands stadium and its major tenant remains strained.

When the $6 million deal was rejected the AFL established a working party consisting of three club presidents — Smorgon, Collingwood's Eddie McGuire and Geelong's stuff Costa — along with two Victorian club chief executives in Carlton's Greg Swann and Richmond's Steve Wright to represent the clubs.

The group has already met once with the Victorian Government in an attempt to state its case regarding financial returns from the MCG, which the AFL believes is handing a superior financial deal to other football codes despite its total reliance on Australian rules football.

Demetriou refused to comment on the Collins deal when contacted by The Age, while Collins was unavailable for comment.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/ground-dispute-hurts-club/2009/02/17/1234632812119.html

[one-eyed]

Edit: Scratch that. SEN didn't realise it was last week's MCC offer which was rejected by the clubs when they reported it this arvo .


According to SEN the MCC and the AFL have done a deal over the stadia agreement at the 'G.

$50m over 10 years effective as of Thursday night so Richmond as the home team will be the first club to benefit.

Offer is $90,000 extra per match to the home side. If the clubs can exceed $2.1 million patrons they get a bonus. They gave an example of Melbourne potentially earning $2m from the new deal.

SEN believes that an agreement has been reached but they need to confirm from the AFL and the clubs.

[mightytiges]

Just our luck that a decent deal won't be agreed upon until after we get 95k to a home game  . MCC is offering the RFC $720k extra per year if the AFL and clubs accept their offer. Yet Melbourne would get an extra $900k. We get bigger crowds yet the Dees would get more $$$. Che!  ???